Archive for
March, 2010

Got a lot of pictures and video to go through. It was a huge weekend with lots of powder and concrete and its going to take a bit of time to go through. I promise to have it up before I take off on Thursday so I guess that means I better get it done on Wed night. Probably the best snowskate jam to date.

Tomorrow morning I load up and head out west. The van will be pretty full by the time we arrive on Friday. So far the roster includes, E2, Graham, Leavitt, FPS Adam, and Jake. We’ll be meeting up with Jordan, Katie and Allan at Snoqualmie then heading to Port Angeles on Fri via a couple of skatepark stops along the way, (as long as the weather cooperates.) Last year this trip worked out so perfectly it would be silly to expect the same this time around but who knows. The weather for Hurricane Ridge is forecast to snow 4-7 on Fri which is a pretty good start. I don’t think we’ll be getting the bluebird with the freshies like last time but that’s ok, just as long as it doesn’t rain like the year before. I’ll be demoing some of my stuff for next season. There will be three set ups of the 42 both with the 36″ top deck and 38″. Also I’m bringing a set up that I just pulled out of the press on fri. Its a brand new sub from a brand new form and I’ve only had a few days on it. I’m having a hard time describing it since it falls in between a snowskate sub and a powder sub. For the time being I’m calling it a mountain skate.

The mountain skate is a direct descendant of the 42″. It has the same side cut and taper although the width is about 3/8 wider. The insert locations and the deck mounting with respect to the tail are the same as is the sweep of the nose and tail. The goal was to make a sub that would handle just like the 42 but with a larger nose for off piste riding. It comes in at 51″ long, 8 1/4″ nose, 5″ waist and 6″ tail. This is not intended to be a powder skate but instead a snowskate that can handle powder, and most importantly steep terrain. One thing I’ve found though is it doesn’t really matter what you want a sub to do, it will ride how IT wants to ride. Last Saturday was my first test ride and that was just on groomers which it handled great, especially steep stuff. Its very easy to turn and the extra edge in front really digs into the carve. Yesterday though we got to test it out in some fresh pow.

Now with a length of 51″ and a narrow 5″ waist I didn’t expect it to slay the lower angle deep stuff but it did a pretty good job. The area that I was most interested in was steep tight terrain and in those spots it handled great. A smaller sub in steep terrain is a great match. You take a bit of the speed off which slows things down just enough to make good turns with out the feeling that your right on the edge.

All in all it was a great day and I learned a bunch about the set up. Its definitely still in the experimental stage but I’m excited about the direction that I’m headed in. This deck will be free to demo at Hurricane along with the 42″s so if your up there give it a try and tell me what you think.

We did get some footage of its maiden powder voyage, check out how low it rides in the snow, it almost seems like the top deck is throwing out a spray too!!

I saw an epoxy stirrer like this in a manufactuers shop and wondered why they didn’t clean it. Then after using epoxy I realized it was just a lot easier to let the excess drip off into a cup. It grows a little bit bigger with each press.

A modest sized stack of boards. It makes me feel productive when I see the almost ready decks but then I think back on how much time it takes and the productivity feeling kinda goes away.

Of course getting out in the pow makes you forget about everything…

Speaking about forgetting, I know I said there might be a Product page coming soon. I feel like I’ve just about got next years product dialed in and I want to post up all that I will be offering for next season. So expect something in the not to distant future and of course I will be bringing it all to Hurricane with demos to ride so you can always catch it there.

Today was the first Thursday where we did not go into the backcountry. With the warm temps and rain yesterday, things were looking a bit on the crappy side as far as powder goes. Oh well, it was a good day to stay in bounds and goof around. Neither Cole nor I can ollie very well, but that didn’t stop us from trying. There is this flat spot at the top of the mountain that is on a hump. Most skiers and snowboarders never go up there cause its a little bit of a hike but the groomers pass through and its always buffed. There is a nice mellow incline for riding flatground and big long manuals. We built a little bump and practiced ollieing off it. I guess you could call it the snow version of a jump ramp.

A snowmobile came by and I got a tow into this snow mound.

We are planning a Snowskater cross for the 11th of April. It will be loads of fun and I’ll be posting more on it as the time gets closer. Also I’m just finishing up the last batch of boards for the season. I’ve got a bit of everything, FPS completes 151 and 152 and three of the new Morning wood’s as well as unmounted finished decks. I’ll post up a full list with prices first of the week… heck I might even put it on the Product page, wouldn’t that be nice?